Kamasi Washington, the pioneering jazz multi-instrumentalist composer and producer, is bringing his new short film As Told To G/D Thyself to the UK for the first time.
Ummah Chroma – a collective of renowned filmmakers and maven artists – directs the film, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January. The collective includes Bradford Young (Selma, Arrival), Terence Nance (Random Acts of Flyness), Jenn Nkiru (Beyonce and Jay-Z’s Apeshit), Marc Thomas (Michael & Javier) and Washington.
As Told To G/D Thyself is inspired by and features music from Washington’s most recent album Heaven and Earth. Shot in Baltimore, the film builds on Washington’s cosmic themes that play out in his music, exploring current global chaos and uncertainty, and what his idea of the future is. It’s described as “a cosmic journey of sacred youth, during which pain, pleasure, and sublimation are non-negotiable”.
Washington’s critically acclaimed debut album The Epic dropped back in 2015, and across his career, he’s collaborated with the likes of Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar. Heaven and Earth came out on Young Turks in 2018 and was embraced by critics and fans for his dynamic, imaginative work that has pushed a new era of jazz into the mainstream consciousness.
“Earth are the songs that came from my own experiences of life, and Heaven are the songs of how I imagine life,” Washington told Dazed previously about the dual-perspective album. “The journey, you realise, is one and the same: how you imagine the world affects how you experience it.”
The film will have its UK premiere at The Store X, 180 The Strand from Friday March 1 – Sunday March 10, showing on loop from 12-7pm every day. The event is free entry. A one-off, ticketed event with Washington in conversation with artistic director of Serpentine Galleries Hans Ulrich Obrist will take place on Friday March 1.